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16-year-old-boy when the book opens. He is only 12 when he meets Lucas Beauchamp, however and becomes obsessed with a perceived debt he owes the older man for sharing his supper with him after he fell into his creek. Very much a product of the South and of the time in which he lives. Believes everyone has a place in society and that everyone should behave accordingly. Feels he slighted Lucas Beauchamp when he offered him the money and he is very ashamed of his behavior. Therefore, when the opportunity comes for him to help Lucas, he does not jump at it, but he does stand up to it.
Behaves very bravely throughout the novel, working diligently to save a man the rest of his fellow citizens would like to see hanged. That is not to say that it does not cross his mind to run. On the contrary, he spends quite a bit of time considering how easy it would be to ride his horse out of town and stay until what will happen has happened. Doesn't give in to this whim, however, no matter how strong it is. He remains fully convinced that he is doing the right thing and he would have done it even without the unexpected help he finds. |
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A landowner, a southern gentleman and a black man. During the time period of this novel, he is considered less than a man by the people around him. He, however, acts as if he is not a black man but is simply a man. Lucas does not back down from a fight; he addresses the people around him with the same respect any white man would show a white neighbor and he holds himself in a class above the other black people around him. This behavior has a habit of getting Lucas into trouble, but he does not seem to mind. He has no friends, a fact he reveals to Gavin Stevens with something like pride in his voice. Has no close relations, his wife is dead and his daughter has moved away. This does not stop him from acting in the way he feels it is his right as the grandson of a white man.
At the time the novel is written, he is considered an oddity. Many people remark, including Charles Mallison, that Lucas should behave like a black man rather than in the manner in which he does. Does not come to town when other black people come to socialize. He always wears a suit when he does come to town, with a gold toothpick in his mouth, a hat on his head and a gold watch strung across his breast. Is also not a man to be argued with and he is not above treating other black persons imperiously. This odd behavior, though, does not stop his neighbors from treating him like a black man, nor does it stop the friends he does not realize he has from coming forward and helping him in a time of crisis. |
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| Gavin Stevens (Uncle Gavin) |
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| Charles's uncle, his mother's brother. A 50-something lawyer who has been a bachelor all his life. Also Charles's employer, giving the boy a quarter a week to run errands in his law office. The moment he hears of Lucas's predicament, just like any other southern gentleman, he assumes Lucas is guilty. It is expected that a black man will eventually lose his temper and injure or kill a white man. It is simply part of the unwritten code of the South, just like the expectation that the family of the dead man will lynch the perpetrator. This does not make him a bad man. Eventually, he does put himself on the line to help prove Lucas's innocence. When he does, he refuses payment for his services for the simple fact that he did not believe Lucas. |
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| The last living member of a very old family that has lived in this county for many years. Was raised with Molly Beauchamp, the two were born within weeks of each other and they were raised by the same woman. [She] still employs Molly's brother and his wife on her property where she grows vegetables to sell to her neighbors. It is this loyalty she feels for Molly that causes her to go to Gavin Stevens and ask him to help her free Lucas Beauchamp. When she hears the story Charles has to tell about Lucas being sure it was not his gun that killed Vinson Gowrie, she is determined to help Charles exhume Vinson's body. Later, when Charles wonders whether he would have gone through with his mission if it had not been for her, he is sure he would have. That conclusion, of course, is left to the reader's imagination. However, if it were not for [her] and the use of her truck, Charles might not have been able to remain safe that evening or been able to convince the adults of what he had seen. |
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| Another deeply rooted southern gentleman. It was also his first impression that Lucas must be guilty. However, he is also a good lawman, who agrees to see through the case when Gavin and Charles come to him with evidence that someone is trying to hide Vinson Gowrie's body. Not only does he follow through, but he concocts the scheme to catch Crawford Gowrie. He protects Lucas above and beyond what was necessary by hiding him in his own house. |
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| The son of a very poor man who lives in the poorer section of the county. He is the youngest of six boys. When he is found dead at the beginning of the novel, Lucas is standing over him, a recently fired pistol stuck in the waistband of his pants. Lucas might have been lynched as he stood there if not for the intervention of a store owner's son who once before saved Lucas from a fight with another white man. The men in this part of town are strong believers in the unwritten code of the South that says a white man can kill any black man who has killed one of their family members. His family also believes strongly in this code. Charles spends a good portion of the novel worrying about this lynching and the other wondering why it does not happen. The reader also spends a great deal of the novel wondering to where in the world his body has disappeared. |
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| Lucas's wife. Dies in the second chapter of the book; however, she makes a big impression on the young Charles. Charles meets her in Lucas's house as he sits to warm himself in front of the fire after he falls into the creek. At first he believes her to be a child because she is so small and her face is hidden from him. However, when he does see her face, he realizes she must be quite old. The reader also finds out later in the novel that she was born within weeks of Miss Habersham and that the two girls were raised together. Her brother is also an employee of Miss Habersham's. If not for her, it is possible Miss Habersham might not have involved herself in Lucas's plight and Lucas might not have gotten the freedom he deserved. She is a minor character, but she is hugely important to the plot. |
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| An old-school chum of Gavin Stevens. [He] is also a cousin of Lucas's. Lucas owns a piece of land on [his] plantation that was given to his family by [his] father. Carothers does not play a large part in the novel; however, he is important because if it were not for his decision to allow a 12-year-old Charles to go rabbit hunting on his land, young Charles might never have met Lucas or missed paying for a meal he ate, consequently never feeling the responsibility to help Lucas. |
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| A black boy who works for the Mallison family. [He] is the same age as Charles, give or take a few months. Like Molly and Miss Habersham, the two boys have been raised together. [He] accompanies Charles when he helps to exhume Vinson Gowrie's body and it is [his] amazing sense of sight and hearing that alerts them to the mule that surprises them on the road as they are traveling to the cemetery. If not for [him], Miss Habersham and Charles might have found themselves in trouble with a man who had already killed two people. [He] also is the first to point out that the flowers had been disturbed on the grave and to suggest that there might be quicksand under the bridge. [He] proves to be a very valuable asset to Charles and Miss Habersham. |
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| Charles's mother and Gavin's sister. [She] is a strong southern woman who is not very happy her son is growing up. She would like to coddle young Charles, but her brother will not allow it. However, it becomes apparent there is more to [her] than the need to mother her only child. [She] stands up beside Miss Habersham when the sheriff decides the women would be of more use standing guard outside the jail than standing in a cemetery while the men dig up dead bodies. |
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| What killed Vinson Growrie? |
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| Where is the location in which this novel is set? |
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| Yoknapatawpha County; Jackson, Mississippi |
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| Charles's horse, a Shetland pony that someone taught to take 18- and 24- inch jumps |
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| Where Charles works. Where Miss Habersham waits for word on the outcome of the sheriff's scheme to arrest Crawford Gowrie and where Lucas comes to pay his final bill after he is freed. |
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| Crawford Gowrie's business partner |
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| Uncle Gavin says to Lucas |
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| "You want me to agree to do something without knowing what I'm agreeing to?" (speaker) |
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| Speech about equality - who made this speech? |
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| "Of all the things the old man could have said" |
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| Vinson Growrie can do what? |
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| Who could write a check and have any bank honor it? |
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| Who said, "It's alright to boast... just don't stop." |
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